Ch.243Life is inherently hypocritical. (1)

# Chapter 243: Life Is All About Double Standards (1)

While explaining to Riel, I decided to formally organize the plan I had been formulating in my mind.

“Riel, here’s my plan for now.”

“What is it?”

I placed my terminal on the table and manipulated the screen, causing a hologram depicting the entire galaxy to appear. I then began to operate it with various gestures while continuing my explanation to Riel.

“First, regarding Aeternia…”

“Yes.”

Seeing that I was about to go into lecture mode, Riel was already stretching out her limbs and settling into the sofa.

“One of my goals is to establish Aeternia as an exile government within our empire, similar to Kerzin.”

“Really?”

“Of course, unlike Kerzin, which was incorporated to achieve hegemony and is essentially being domesticated within our empire… Aeternia will be utilized as our ‘military power’.”

After saying that, I expanded the galaxy hologram to show the outer regions of our empire—the so-called “unexplored territories”—and continued.

“For this purpose, we’ll simply give Aeternia the planetary systems that we’ve only claimed as our territory but haven’t developed. From that point on, they’ll operate independently.”

“Minister, but the Precursor Empires don’t expand or engage in production activities, right? How do you plan to address that?”

I shook my head in response to Riel’s question.

“That’s only applicable when their situation is normal.”

“Hmm…”

Riel wasn’t wrong.

According to my memories from before my possession 22 years ago (it’s already been a year), the Precursor Empires in the game would never expand or rebuild and produce fleets unless they experienced some kind of “awakening.”

But that only applies to a certain extent.

How could they possibly adhere to “protocols” when their capital star system has been completely destroyed and the majority of their population annihilated?

It’s fortunate they’re not going berserk and threatening to kill everyone in sight.

The important point is, considering that their fleet and leadership remain intact despite the destruction of their capital, if they secure sufficient population and suitable planets, Aeternia would certainly begin conquering the unexplored territories on the galaxy’s outskirts that our empire has neglected.

And when that happens, they could serve as excellent allies for our empire.

However, there was one critical problem with the Aeternia exile government plan.

And it was an issue obvious enough that Riel, who had been listening to my explanation until now, could immediately point it out.

Namely…

“Minister, giving unexplored territories to Aeternia and letting them grow independently sounds good… but who’s going to pay for the maintenance costs of Aeternia’s Extinction Fleet?”

“…”

It was a money problem.

‘Ah! Victory is within reach, and capitalism tries to trip me up?’

It was truly infuriating, but this very issue was why I couldn’t freely disclose the Aeternia exile government plan.

“The Kerzin exile government lost most of their fleet in the war, so they have fewer than 500 ships in total.”

“That’s right.”

“But Aeternia’s fleet exceeds 20,000 ships…”

“Hmm.”

“You know that our empire has only recently surpassed 30,000 ships, including the Papal fleet, right?”

“Hmm.”

“Remember how much whining there was in the parliament about the Defense Ministry’s fleet expansion proposal?”

I certainly remembered.

The Finance Minister, who had been criticized for selling his soul to foreign investors to normalize the national finances, foaming at the mouth in rage was quite a memorable sight.

And Riel bringing this up had a clear implication.

“If you present such a plan, won’t parliament give you a hard time?”

She was concerned that parliament would foam at the mouth and tear into me over a budget request incomparable to Kerzin’s…

I shrugged at Riel’s concern and said:

“Don’t worry, I have it all figured out.”

I then expanded the view to show the “location” I planned to give to Aeternia.

Upon seeing it, Riel made a gesture as if she was about to spit out her drink.

Because that location was…

None other than the area between our Holy Sevelli Empire and the Prosnack Union.

More precisely, it was in the northwestern region of the empire.

“Look, Riel. Don’t you think placing them here would significantly reduce our security burden?”

“Hmm…”

This way, parliament would start by calculating only the maintenance costs for Aeternia’s fleet…

But then consider it as a preventive measure against the massive military state of Prosnack.

Along with national security concerns that couldn’t be estimated by simply punching numbers into a calculator.

Plus, it might appeal to the senior members of parliament who still predominantly fantasized, ‘This might help us reclaim the northern territories that were seized(?) by Prosnack…’

So it wasn’t a completely unrealistic proposal.

Of course, there were still substantial issues with establishing Aeternia as an exile government.

“What about the paradise planet? Didn’t the quest window demand a paradise planet as a condition for establishing the Aeternia exile government?”

Riel pointed out the problem that we couldn’t establish an exile government without a paradise planet, which our empire had very few of.

“Gaia’s cooldown is complete.”

“Ah.”

We could simply throw Gaia at any suitable planet in the designated sector and turn it into a paradise planet.

“Or we could give them a planet and have Aeternia terraform it themselves.”

“I see.”

The quest specified that a paradise planet was needed.

But there was no condition specifying “who” had to create it.

If we provided a suitable planet, the Precursors, having survived since the Dark Age, would quickly create a paradise planet using terraforming technology far superior to ours and live well on their own.

———————————————

After finishing the explanation of the Aeternia exile government plan, Riel raised another question.

“Minister, what are your thoughts on the cosmic monsters?”

That part was also something I had meticulously planned during the time pause.

“First of all, Riel, you know that our ultimate goal is to capture and punish the First Emperor, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then to capture the First Emperor, we need sufficient military power.”

“Yes.”

Seeing Riel’s calm demeanor, I took a moment to drink some water to moisten my throat.

Satisfied with the moistened state of my throat, I began explaining my plan.

“After much contemplation during the time pause, considering the First Emperor’s power… we’ll need at least this much.”

As I manipulated the hologram, it displayed the forces I had previously noted down for the raid against the First Emperor.

[Arthraia]

[Maria]

[Aeternia Extinction Fleet]

[All Sevelli Fleets (including Capital Defense Fleet and Judgment Fleet)]

[Mercenary Fleet (Warlord origin)]

[ISTO Treaty Forces Fleet]

[ISTO Member Nations’ Forces]

[All Prosnack Fleets]

…

Seeing this, Riel opened her mouth with an expression of disbelief.

“That’s really excessive. You think we need this much to push him back?”

“Yes.”

Didn’t they say the Ether Dragon, considered the most formidable raid boss in the game, was repelled with serious injuries without significant casualties on our side?

“Judging by how he crushed the Aeternia royals without giving them time to transform, we can roughly gauge the First Emperor’s combat power.”

It’s a rough estimate, but according to Lady Maria’s testimony, there were fewer than 20 royals in the capital at that time.

Considering that the First Emperor was wary of the emergence of these fewer than 20 “Ether Dragons” and launched a lightning-fast surprise attack reminiscent of Pearl Harbor…

The combined power of 20 Ether Dragons plus the Aeternia Extinction Fleet should be enough to grab the First Emperor by the hair and swing him around.

The problem was that the power of an Ether Dragon, by late-game standards, required the mobilization of all fleets from a small to medium-sized nation just to match it.

This meant that for our raid against the First Emperor, we needed to gather fleets equivalent to the power of 20 Ether Dragons.

Having organized these thoughts, I spoke to Riel again.

“The Treaty Forces Fleet created by drawing forces from ISTO member nations won’t be enough. We obviously need to scrape together and deploy all available forces, including the capital defense fleets of member nations.”

“…Wait, then since Fuchsviet might take advantage of the situation… you’re planning to release cosmic monsters to keep Fuchsviet in check?”

I nodded at Riel’s correct deduction and said:

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, but yes.”